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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

AFC power struggle reflects sorry state of soccer governance

FIFA Vice President and Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
executive committee member Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein in an uncommon display of
elegance and magnanimity in the rarefied world of world soccer as well as of
Middle Eastern and North African leaders has conceded defeat in a battle that
is symptomatic of the sordid state of football governance.

Prince Ali’s concession came even before the AFC Congress in
Sao Paolo on the eve of the World Cup in Brazil adopted a resolution that
solidified the power base of AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa
and could next year terminate Prince Ali’s presence in the FIFA executive committee.

Taking the high ground, Prince Ali at the last minute supported
a proposal by Sheikh Salman to combine the post of AFC president and FIFA vice
president rather than maintain the vice presidency as an elected position in the
realization that the Bahraini’s power grab was likely to succeed.

“In the spirit of Asian solidarity and harmony, I asked all
member associations present at AFC Congress ahead of the vote to pass this
amendment and to be united in this vote for the best of Asia. Our unity as a
confederation is crucial at a time when we must work together to develop
football in Asia; which I believe is our core mission. A mission I am committed
to. It is far more important than positions, chairs and seats,” Prince Ali said
in a statement.

Prince Ali who was elected three years ago had bitterly
opposed the proposal prior to the AFC congress on the grounds that it sent the
wrong signal at a time that world soccer needs demonstrations of greater transparency
and accountability the most.

In endorsing the proposal at the last moment, Prince Ali
hoped to demonstrate that soccer governance should be about the benefit of the
sport rather than personal power, particularly in the Middle East and North
Africa where it is highly politicized and ruling elites control the game in a
bid to gain political benefit and prevent the pitch from becoming a platform
for anti-government protest.

Prince Ali could nonetheless as yet decide to challenge
Sheikh Salman in next year’s AFC presidential election or run for the FIFA
executive seat that will become vacant as a result of the combination of the
AFC presidency and the FIFA vice presidency.

At stake in an at times bitter battle between Prince Ali, a
prominent reformer, and Sheikh Salman, a proponent of the existing order that
has produced the worst crisis in the history of soccer, was the need for a
radical revamp of the sport’s governance structures.

Proponents of reform, among whom Prince Ali figures prominently,
have been fighting an uphill battle for the past four years. That battle has
become more difficult with FIFA president Sepp Blatter whose image has been tarnished
by multiple scandals, including fresh allegations of Qatari bribery in its
successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, seeking to weaken his critics within
the group as he campaigns for a fourth term.

The election last year of Sheikh Salman to complete the term
of disgraced AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam, the Qatari national at the centre
of the Qatar controversy and the FIFA scandals, says much about world soccer
management’s attitude towards governance. Three national soccer players in
Sheikh Salman’s home country were three years ago denounced as traitors, detained
and tortured for participating in anti-government demonstrations three years
ago. The players have been released but Bahrain has since arrested two whole teams.

Sheikh Salman, a member of Bahrain’s ruling family and head
of the Bahrain Football Association, has refused to comment on the plight of
his players. British prosecutors are weighing a petition by a Bahraini national
for the arrest of a relative of Sheikh Salman’s, Prince Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the eldest
son of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, commander of the Gulf island’s Royal
Guard and head of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, on suspicion of involvement in
the abuse of political prisoners. Prince Nasser phoned into the show on state-run
television that denounced the three national team players in a demonstration of
support of what amounted to a kangaroo court.

Sheikh Salman’s bid to gain total control of the AFC rather than
democratize soccer governance came not only at a time that confidence in the integrity
of the sport’s management is being mired in a seeming cesspool of corruption
and greed, but also in which the integrity of the selection process of participants
in the World Cup is being called into question.

A just published study by Canadian researchers Christian Stone
and Michael Rod in Soccer
& Society concluded that the current system for World Cup qualification
was not based on ensuring qualification of the best 32 teams in the world but
on securing and enhancing FIFA’s profitability. FIFA was reported to have
earned $4 billion since the last World Cup four years ago, including its
sponsorship fees. The study concluded that the qualification system did not “fairly
allocate qualification spots on the number of teams per (regional soccer) federation
or any other metric.”

Messrs. Stone and Rod argued that FIFA’s system of fixed
World Cup berths for each of its six member federations means that Latin
America and Europe occupy half of the available spots in a World Cup even though
they account for only 20 percent of the total FIFA population. Moreover,
qualification matches for the World Cup account for only one percent of all
games played by teams from different regional confederations.

“As such, while there continues to be development and growth
of teams from regions outside of CONMEBOL (Latin America) and UEFA (Europe), these
teams are given limited possibility of greater international exposure in order to
satisfy the World Cup status quo allocation of spots to some confederations,”
Messrs. Stone and Rod said.

They went on to argue
that “if indeed the World Cup is a tournament that is home to the best 32 national
footballing teams in the world, than steps should be taken to ensure that this
is the case for each tournament, regardless of the origin of the teams…. The
important factor here is the transparency of the process that removes exclusive
world football power from the executives at FIFA and instead shares it among the
various stakeholders of football.”

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological
University. He is also co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute
for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile